HIgh Winds

We were given fair warning, but the wind today was nearly off the scale for us.  Beginning around 7 am we were hit with a wind sheer.  Deb was up and saw the full garbage can rolling down the sidewalk.  It was garbage day and we had put it out last night.  We never saw it again.  We nearly never saw Deb again, either.  She went out alone to retrieve it, but it was already gone.  Then she had to fight her way back up the sidewalk against the wind, which was 60 to 70 mph.  It was also sleeting.  Of course I happily slept through it all, and might never have known what had happened to her had she blown away.  14 hours later and it is still howling away out there.  Both Ontario and Michigan have very large number of power outages, including much of Amherstburg.  So far our power hasn't even blinked.

 

In film news, Deb is awaiting the new music for her latest film.  She has a good composer in Mexico City, a student at the university there.  She has used him before and is hoping for another winning score.

UPDATE:  As I was typing our power went off very suddenly.  It was off for about 30 minutes.  So far so good, and we are back in business.  It is quite cold outside, so the house was getting chilly.  The furnace does not run without electricity.  But we have lots of wood stocked up and we were getting ready to light the fireplace.

 

In other film news, there are three that we have watched recently.  Jim Jarmusch's most recent film (2025) is called Father Mother Sister Brother.  It consists of three short films, all written and directed by Jarmusch.  All three films are family oriented and small in scale.  the first one stars Tom Waits as an old coot who lives alone and knows how to prey on his son's sympathy, wrangling lots of cash from him to keep up his secret high living life.  When his son and daughter visit him he puts on an act of a man with barely a nickel to his name.  The daughter is not fooled, however, and never gives him anything.  The second film stars Cate Blanchett and Charlotte Rampling.  Rampling is the mother, and her two daughters are coming for tea.  She lives in Dublin and is a writer.  The visit is awkward and as Deb says, a bit creepy.  Rampling hardly looks like she was a model mother.  Neither of the first two films impressed me very much.  However, the third one is a winner.  Fraternal twins get back together for their parents' funeral.  They obviously have a deep connection, and this comes across beautifully in the film.  This third one is well worth watching.

 

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Tamal 2010: A Punk Cat In Space is from 2005, a Japanese anime flic that will have viewers saying "Huh?" for its 92 minutes running time.  Here is the Criterion blurb:

 

[The movie] is a futuristic fever dream that flows back and forth in time, following the adorable wide-eyed kitty Tamala on her home world of Meguro City, a BLADE RUNNER–esque metropolis controlled by the Catty & Co. corporation. Escaping into space, she’s waylaid by the God of Death and crash-lands near Hate City on the Planet Q, where she meets a new boyfriend, goes bowling and thrift shopping—and realizes she may be the latest reincarnation of an ancient Greek cat cult with ties to the omnipresent Catty & Co. 

 

If that description floats your boat, then I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  Probably best seen under the influence of drugs of some kind or other, watching it straight was a weird enough experience.  If nothing else, it is certainly a memorable film.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

This evening we watched a Mervyn Leroy classic film from 1934 called Heat Lightning.  Two sisters run a desert gas bar, the older one being the mechanic and the younger one running the cafe.  Different customers stop by and pass on, but two criminals on the lam stay for a visit.  The mean one knew the older sister in a different life.  The younger sister is anxious to date boys.  They both end up hurt badly by events that transpire.  The film, a short one, begins as a comedy but soon becomes a tragedy.  However, life goes on.  A pretty neat film, and it would make a good double feature with the later and superior Petrified Forest.  Aline MacMahon is terrific as the older sister with a past that comes back to haunt her, while Ann Dvorak plays the innocent younger sister effectively.  Worth catching.

 

Leaving Criterion this month. 

 

In health news, Deb's latest blood work showed very good progress.  She is getting her energy back, and all seems well for now.  I had my foot checked again this week, and all seems well there, too.  Perhaps there will be some travel in our near future.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

Another Walking Day

 Two days before our 2nd snow event arrives (Monday will not be a nice day), I headed back out on the trail, this time hiking into McGregor from the other end.  Deb dropped me off again and met me not far from the town.  I still have one segment left to walk on the A/burg to Essex trail.  All I need is another nice day before winter really strikes a blow.  I ended up walking only 3.25 miles today, but it still felt good to get some fresh air and sunshine, though the sun is quite low, even at noon.

 

The road goes ever on, again.

 

Some of Detroit's skyscrapers can be seen in the far background of this telephoto shot.  It was a very clear day.

 

There are currently two trails in Essex County; this is where they intersect. I just came from the trail on the left side of photo, and I am heading in the opposite direction.  The cross trail is the longer one, being about 42 km.  My trail is about 22 km, and I hope to finish it in one more walk.

 

This is a free public bike repair shop, with a rack to sit the bike on, an air pump, and various wrenches and tools.  Pretty neat! 

 

In movie news, there are several to report.  This is Deb's film festival weekend, so even more reporting will come again soon.  And it's almost the end of the month, which means it's nearly time to review my books read in November.  But first on to films.

 

My choice was Big City Blues, a film from 1932 directed by Mervyn Leroy.  It's a hard hitting pre-code film about a young innocent man going to New York to seek his fortune, from his small town in Indiana.  We follow him from the train station, a mere whistle stop, until his return.  He leaves full of optimism and fantasies, and returns a bit less innocent and a lot wiser.  He has not given up, though, and hopes to save enough money to give it a second try.  Meanwhile in New York, he is accosted by a mooching uncle, led into a weekend booze fest in his hotel room, which leads to an accidental murder.  Quite a lot happens in just over 60 minutes; some of these old movies keep up the frantic momentum from start to finish.  Joan Blondell is the chorus girl who falls for the innocent guy from Indiana.  Rather strange film, but eminently worth watching.

 

 

Showing until Nov. 30th on Criterion.

 

A while back we watched an Iranian film called Where Is My Friend's House, a wonderful feature about a young boy trying to return a homework book he mistakenly picked up after school.  In this film, called And Life Goes On, using the 1990 Iran earthquake (one of the worst ones anywhere) as a background, the director goes in search of the boys, in hopes of finding them safe.  The movie blends fiction and fact, and becomes a meditative road movie as we venture into the earthquake zone, enduring traffic jams, blocked roads, and ruined towns and villages.  Getting to the village of Koker is nearly impossible, especially in the little car used by the director-actor.  Quite good, especially if you have seen the first film.

 

 

Now showing on Criterion.

 

Deb's next pick was a French animated film scripted by Jacques Prevert called The King and the Bird.  I mentioned awhile back how great it was to have a streaming channel that shows beautiful prints of classic films.  Well, that same channel has introduced us to the most wonderful animated features, too, this being the fourth or fifth absolutely incredibly imaginative one so far.  The story concerns a supremely narcissistic king trying to steal a lovely shepherdess away from the chimney sweep whom she loves.  They are aided by a talky bird, a pride of lions, a blind organ grinder, and a massive robot.  The animation is really good, though not the same style throughout, and the castle has Gormenghastian proportions.  The film took 30 years to complete, and Prevert died in 1977, just before completion.  It is loosely based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen.  Highly recommended.

 

 

Now showing on Criterion.

Mapman Mike